On Tuesday just after noon, over a million people in the Atlanta metro area found themselves stuck on the roads with nowhere to go.
After many businesses and schools decided to release early around the same time – Georgia State included – the highways soon became unnavigable as ordinary commutes transformed into odysseys of epic proportions.
Many spent the night at makeshift shelters at places like Home Depot as they abandoned their gas-starved cars on the roads and walked for miles in search of a warm place to lay their heads. Still others turned to friends and social media to find lodging for the night.
Indeed, stories abound of complete strangers taking in stranded motorists left helpless on the road. It was almost a little inspiring.
For their part, the students and faculty of Georgia State too shared in that collective spirit of generosity and hospitality. Last week wasn’t just a snow day but an opportunity to reveal a kinder side of the community, and the university didn’t disappoint.
Even as last week’s storm crippled Atlanta’s dysfunctional transportation grid, students welcomed their friends and even complete strangers into their residences in a warm display of compassion.
And let us also not forget the workers of Georgia State, who stayed through the inclement weather to service the needs of the school’s more than 4,000 residents. Because of their hard work and dedication, our sidewalks and dining halls remained open to shelter those on campus while others wasted away in their long, frigid commutes home on Tuesday night.
But it shouldn’t have come to that.
Weather reports warning of dangerous conditions on the road were available as early as Sunday and at least by Monday. And while there’s no one person directly at fault for last week’s “Snowmageddon” or “Snowpocalypse” event as it is known, there’s plenty of evidence suggesting more could have been done to prevent this catastrophe.
Indeed, even President Mark Becker acknowledged this reality last week in an open letter addressed to the university community.
Though he doesn’t quite apologize for his choice to release students early rather than cancel school completely on Tuesday, he does take responsibility for the decision – but he’s promising to improve how the university handles inclement weather situations.
“We will learn and improve our operations as a result of this weather calamity,” President Becker said in the letter. “I am appointing a task force to review all aspects of Georgia State’s weather emergency protocols and operations, and to revise our plans in the light of the lessons learned this week.”
In the future, Becker said the University will endeavor to coordinate with city, county and state officials to make sure the school’s release schedule works in the larger context of the metro Atlanta area.
That’s really important, too. So much of the disaster Tuesday could have been avoided if metro leaders in the businesses and schools around us had communicated before letting everyone out at the same time.
Even though the Georgia State community showed us why the South is known for its hospitality, we can’t count on that every time there’s a chance of snow on the radar.
In the future, we need to do a better job – no matter how fragmented – of communicating travel plans and working on a release procedure that ensures we learn from not only this costly mistake but ones in the future as well.
Indeed, though inclement weather may not be too common an occurrence in Georgia, when it does hit, it can be disastrous – as we’ve learned in 2011 and again this year.
Moving forward, it’s clear the administration needs to take a more preemptive stance in shutting down the school when bad whether has the chance to seriously impact the lives of the university’s students.
Even if that means canceling classes with only a chance ice or snow, it’s better to not to take the chance of repeating the events of last week. In other words, let’s be safe not sorry.
And that start with a plan that includes coordinating with local and state officials as President Becker has suggested. Because for a school with more than 25,000 regular commuters, having a coordinated plan in the case of inclement weather is not just important: It’s vitally necessary.
